The OTHER side of Business

Many of us have heard about corruption in public service and have lived with it. Now we will start hearing about the same in private sector too (more often) in the days to come. Having seen how businesses are run and the transformation happening over the business space now, i can confidently say Enron was only a prelude...

HR for a change is now playing a catalyst role in this dubious transformation process. They should be happy because, all these days they were only silent spectators !!! Now they get a chance to play CHANGE AGENTS. lol.

Marketing gets a cut from agencies, Accounts from suppliers, HR from consultants and so on. Accepting gift has been part of culture for long. However DEMANDING a major share eats into service providers profit margin. This more often gets reflected in the quality of the product or the price. Over expectation has never been good.

Though performance linked pay has pushed people to be more productive, there is a fall out now. In order to get that bonus, managers inflate their performance and use all dubious means to project an artificial performance. When they fall short of organic growth, they resort to inflate the bills of customers and reach the target and get their short term benefit. They are also sensible(!) to do this for shorter duration and move out of the company faster.

Such Enron type processes are happening often these days and HR is now part of this change management process. HR is now more focussed about negotiating the highest cut than initiating a sensible culture building process. No doubt the attrition levels and salary inflation are on the higher side.

Should i blame greed or the materialistic leanings. Inflation though creates a short term artificial vibrancy; is not good in the long run. During crisis, the structure will collapse resisting all the support, like the dotcom bust.

Let us not create more Enrons...